Andrei Goga

Candid photo of Zara Weinberg. She has short red hair, bangs and glasses. She is laughing.

The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.

The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/

What a joy to host the one and only Jenn Prescher for a memorable seminar visit at Cornell Chemistry!!

Coyote playing with stuffed animal.

Cooper’s Hawk on a power line in San Francisco.

Great Horned Owl in an oak tree in San Francisco.

Amazing weather in the Bay Area the past week.

Here’s some wildlife spotted in San Francisco over the past few days.

The coyote playing with stuffed animals is a highlight.

Fur blowing straight back from the face of a long-haired dog with their head poking out of the window of a moving vehicle.

Most potential pet owners consider things like breeding, size, coat, intelligence, trainability, and temperament. Often overlooked is the crucially important element of aerodynamics, which can greatly affect your gas mileage, raising the overall cost of ownership significantly.

Personal good news alert: I’ve been promoted to associate professor and it’s time to update the ol’ bio! Launching my lab at UCSF has been a privilege + I’m so grateful to my team and community here. More exciting science ahead! 🚀

Fastest half - but still very slow…

Blue Jays base running reminiscent of the SF Giants. But not in a good way.

Fantastic talk and wonderful to meet.

The thing about professor stuff is that you’re never done and you’re always behind

More than 140 riders are signed up to participate in the ride.

One more city has raised more than $100k over the last few years to support metastatic breast cancer. Starts at 11 AM.

Come join us!

givingtogether.ucsf.edu/campaign/the...

The UCSF Breast Oncology Program is happy to partner with One More City and founder Christine O’Connell to support metastatic breast cancer research. This will be the 4th year that together with Rapha they have sponsored a century ride.

@ucsfcancer.bsky.social @ctbatucsf.bsky.social

Why does the naked mole rat have the longest lifespan of any rodent, nearly 40 years?
A 30-year long mystery unraveled @ScienceMagazine today!
Its cGAS enzyme in cells has 4 missense mutations that upends its function, promoting DNA repair and suppressing inflammation
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#Emerging #leader awards to developing faculty in #Cancerresearch are critical, especially in the current era of decreasing funding: 2024.themarkfoundation.org/an-emerging-...

Tony has produced seminal work on how cancer cells die, including new assays revealing which cells are poised to die after specific therapeutic treatments.

I wish him luck.

Secretary Kennedy Swears in Dr. Anthony Letai as Director of the National Cancer Institute Dr. Letai will serve as NCI’s 18th director.

We have a new #NCI Director who was just sworn in: www.nih.gov/news-events/...

Influencers are selling homeopathy as Tylenol “alternatives” — it’s NOT.

⚠️Homeopathy is a scam created in 1796 by a German guy with NO plausibility or evidence.

Premise:
1️⃣ what causes a symptom will cure an illness w/the symptom
2️⃣ it’s more potent the more it’s diluted

1/

Karin Shamardani, DDS/PhD candidate, is working with Jeff Bush @jeffbush.bsky.social to study how Efnb1 and the understudied actin-regulator gene Shrm4 interact to control palatal outgrowth and mesenchymal organization during craniofacial development.

Kyle Jacobs, a Biomedical Sciences PhD candidate in the Kutys Lab, is studying mechanisms of blood vessel inflammation and how this inflammation is dysregulated in diseases like atherosclerosis.

Ting, a postdoc in the L’Etoile lab @girlsinscience.bsky.social, was recently awarded the BARI Postdoctoral Fellowship to study how nights of poor sleep contribute to age-related memory decline in tiny roundworms, which—like humans—also experience sleep loss and memory deterioration as they age.

Wrapping up National Postdoc Appreciation Week with a big thank you to our outstanding postdocs! #ucsfNPAW #UCSFpostdocs

Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week! We are celebrating all the incredible postdocs in the CTB Department! Thank you for your dedication and the vital role you play in advancing research! We will be introducing some of the postdocs who have joined in 2025. #ucsfNPAW #UCSFpostdocs

Buster Posey, Giants raise $1.3M for pediatric cancer research at Oracle Park gala Working with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and the V Foundation, Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants raised money at an event that choked up even the famously reserved former catcher.

From @shaynarubin and also well done Poseys and Giants!! Buster Posey, Giants raise $1.3M for pediatric cancer research at Oracle Park gala www.sfchronicle.com/sports/giant... via @sfchronicle

I was there. The game was amazing with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning. Watching someone eat so many nuggets was otherwise horrifying.

giants win while mets, padres, and cardinals all lose

great day!

A mega-merger for #cancer #research:

Was my pleasure to moderate the panel today at the inaugural Female Fellows symposium “Balancing Acts”. An insightful, open and frank discussion on juggling a scientific career with caring, part time work and leave, and a real sense of solidarity.

Enjoyed the Physics of Life Symposium today @UCSF

a bunch of clocks are hanging on a wall including one that says ' 3:00 ' on it ALT: a bunch of clocks are hanging on a wall including one that says ' 3:00 ' on it

New preprint!

How are developmental cycles coordinated across cell types?

It turns out that, like Geppetto's cuckoo clocks in the GIF below, individual cell types are each performing their own little crazy routine, but all in sync with each other.

Interesting and terrifying article. Cancer cells also do something analogous to this type of dormancy to avoid most treatments. Leading to serious challenges for eliminating metastases. 🧪